


The Powerful Play Goes On

by Mamichigo



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: (not all that much but yeah), Alternate Universe - College/University, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Oumota Week 2018, Public Display of Affection, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 05:19:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14709861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mamichigo/pseuds/Mamichigo
Summary: They say life is but a play, and we're all the actors. Kokichi was particularly good at that, at playing and pretending, but he didn't need to - at least not when he was around Kaito.-Oumota Week: Day 5 - AUKokichi is a drama major, Kaito is an astronomy major.





	The Powerful Play Goes On

**Author's Note:**

> Really special thanks to Johan (@bunmikuu) for being my second pair of eyes. I fucking love you dude!
> 
> This au has been on my mind for a little while now, and the oumota week just gave me the perfect excuse to write it! It's a little late bc life got in the way, but that's okay. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing

Kaito would like to be bothered by how ridiculous he must look, holding not one, but _two_ huge bouquets in one hand. Meanwhile, his other hand clutches the handle that hangs right before his eyes, preventing Kaito from falling to an embarrassing death in the moving subway. He _would_ like to be bothered, but strangely enough, Kaito can’t quite be all that worried about it.

That’s the last thing on his mind at the moment, to be honest.

It might have something to do with the small body pressed against his side, gently swaying side to side, uncaring to the world around him. With his eyes closed, Kokichi appears to be asleep to anyone who looks, despite how improbable it may be to do that when he’s standing. His pale hand is curled around Kaito’s bicep, since he doesn’t come anywhere close to reaching the handles; Kaito is tempted to make fun of it like he usually does, but Kokichi looks peaceful, tucked under his arms and breathing slowly.

He isn’t actually sleeping, but Kaito is acutely aware of how tired Kokichi is, even if he won’t admit it. It’s been a long night, since it was the opening day of his play, and the first day always tended to be the one that had everyone on edge, afraid that something went wrong. Thankfully, despite their frying nerves, the show went on without too much stress – besides the usual amounts of it.

It wasn’t new for Kokichi to get the main role, since, no matter how much people disliked him, they knew well that Kokichi was good at what he did. But, it was his first in a musical, and all the preparation required for the dances and singing, on top of all the lines and acting, had the boy looking like a zombie for months – how he had managed to still get good grades on top of that was beyond Kaito (well, actually, he knew exactly how, and the proof was on the purple skin under his eyes, now hidden behind a thick layer of stage makeup).

Speaking of makeup, Kaito smiled to himself as he observed Kokichi’s mostly serene face (“mostly” because Kokichi would never be truly at ease in public), following the lines of his face, entranced by the glitter shimmering on his skin. Some of it stuck to his dark eyelashes, like tiny stars hanging there; Kaito was sure he could find constellations there if he tried hard enough. Careful not to drop the bouquets, Kaito gently touched the fine hair, trying to brush the glitter away, so it wouldn’t fall into his eyes later; Kokichi startled a little, so deep in his own world that the touch surprised him. He peeled one eye open only halfway through and squinted in Kaito’s direction sleepily.

Kaito would never live it down if anyone knew how his breath hitched at the same time his heart sped up. It’s so unbearably cliché, and from the way Kokichi gives him a small, crooked smile, he absolutely knows what’s going through Kaito’s head.

Kokichi will never stop being an insufferable little shit, after all.

“You’re staring too much, Kai-chan. Are you plotting to do something unspeakable to me? Wow, you’re a horrible pervert-,” he trailed off into a yawn, showing Kaito his teeth like a particularly lazy cat.

“Oi, don’t accuse me like that, stupid. I was trying to be helpful, see if I care when you start crying ‘cuz you got makeup in your eyeballs,” Kaito grumbles, but his traitorous fingers contradicts his words, as they remove a stubborn shimmery dot from the other’s eyelashes.

“Kai-chan is my hero!” Kokichi says dramatically, clutching his chest as he does so. It’s supposed to sound sarcastic and annoying, as it usually does, but Kokichi seems to be too tired to pull the tone off perfectly.

Instead, his voice is small and barely there, and it’s incredibly unfitting to the boy who has always filled the room with his personality. It should worry him, maybe, but Kaito reflects that if Kokichi wasn’t okay, he would never leave the evidence so clear in his voice. So, instead of irritating him with unnecessary worry, Kaito brushes his cheek for a brief second before pulling on it playfully.

“Don’t be a brat, or I’ll let you fall on your butt and look like a total idiot in front of everyone,” Kaito threatened lightly, but his arm didn’t budge from Kokichi’s grip.

“I’m always a brat, Kai-chan,” Kokichi whined, tilting his head back to get free from Kaito’s fingers, which only works because Kaito is kinda fussing over him, worried that he might actually hurt the small boy. “I’m your brat, remember!” Kaito frowns at his stupid cheeky grin.

If they weren’t in public, he’d be kissing it off his face.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Keep telling yourself that.” He huffed a little.

“Kai-chan… Are you saying you don’t love me?” Kokichi said in a broken whisper, and damn if it didn’t make Kaito whip his head back, ready to make damage control before he caught himself and remembered _who_ exactly he was talking to. “Does this mean you’re breaking up with me?”

“How the fuck did you even get to that conclusion?!” He tried not to raise his voice, knowing it’d draw way too much attention to them, without a doubt.

“You’re so cruel…!” There were tears in his eyes now.

Fuck.

“Kokichi, don’t.”

“After all the time we’ve been dating, you’re just gonna dump me like it was nothing.”

“Seriously, stop.”

“Did it ever mean anything to you?”

“I swear to fucking god Kokichi, don’t do this.”

The tears were threatening to spill, his eyes red with the sting of it. Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“I guess this is how it ends- hmph!” He didn’t have the chance to finish that sentence as Kaito kissed him, and therefore couldn’t start the theatrics that would just embarrass the both of them – not that Kokichi cared about that, obviously, but Kaito did. A lot, actually.

Kokichi’s face was sticky with the tears that fell when his eyelids fluttered in reaction to the contact, and now they definitely had an audience, so it wasn’t the best kiss they’ve shared. At least people weren’t judging him for making someone cry, so that was an improvement, he supposed.

“You fucking suck, did you know that?” Kaito told him seriously, kissing his cheek before pulling away and trying not to blush as he felt eyes glued to them. “You totally did that on purpose.”

“You looked like you wanted to kiss me, I only gave my beloved Kai-chan what he was, oh, so wistfully longing for!” Kokichi giggled, looking happy with himself for the little stunt.

“Longing my ass!” Kokichi stared, smiling sardonically at him. Kaito nervously averted his eyes, getting a sigh from Kokichi for it.

“You really should try being more honest with yourself, you know. It’s not healthy to bottle up all your… Desires, like that,” he lectured, worry obvious in his voice and even in the crease on his forehead. How the fuck didn’t he get tired of acting all the time?

“Shut up, not like you’re one to talk about bottling up.”

Kokichi shrugged, smiling lazily. “You got me there,” he agreed easily, yawning again and settling down, seemingly done talking.

The silence stretches comfortably between them again, leaving Kaito to his own thoughts; he doesn’t have anything too relevant on his mind, except for the dawning realization that he still needs to study for his test tomorrow once he’s home. Well, fuck.

Kaito is calculating the total amount of time he has before the test and how much he can sleep while still having enough time to study when Kokichi interrupts with a contemplative hum.

“Okay, it’s decided. We should get a cake. A huge one, with lots of strawberries.” Kokichi nods to himself, like that’s a totally reasonable thing to say.

“What, why?”

“To commemorate, of course! For my amazing, breathtaking, flawless performance. So, I deserve cake!” Kokichi explains patiently, not a trace of humbleness in his sentence.

“You already have two huge bouquets, you don’t need a huge cake to go with them.” Kaito eyes said flowers, given to Kokichi by Kaede – _both_ bouquets.

“It’s not the same thing, I can’t eat flowers!” Kokichi complained, puffing out his cheeks.

“That’s still a no, we agreed we’d do something on the last day instead,” he tried to remind the other, quirking an eyebrow at the sudden demand. Kokichi could be unreasonable, but not usually when they were both tired and Kaito had a test the next day (well, not anymore; they didn’t have the smoothest beginning, after all).

“But I want cake, Kai-chan!” He continued to whine, tightening his grip on Kaito’s arm.

“I’ll make you something to eat instead, okay? You’ll probably vibrate out of your skin if you get a sugar high tonight.”

“Your cooking is terrible, Kai-chan, are you trying to poison me?” Kaito immediately protested, threatening to pull on Kokichi’s cheek again. “Also, you’re really dumb and you have a test tomorrow, I don’t want you yelling into my ear about how it’s my fault that you’re failing.”

Kokichi pouts, pausing for a beat before letting out a long-suffering sigh.

“Guess I’ll have to cook something for us, then, since Kai-chan won’t give me cake.”

Kaito blinked at him, taken aback by the conclusion, trying to puzzle out if he was trying to say something here.

“Oh,” he replied, quiet eloquently. Then, when it finally hit him, “Oh!”

Kokichi looked up at him, expression full of pure innocence before Kaito’s accusing, and slightly smug, gaze.

“You have such a roundabout way of being nice to people, did you know that?”

“I’m more impressed that you know what roundabout means,” he pointed out cheekily.

“Nothing is easy with you, is it,” Kaito said, not expecting a response. Then, thinking back to the many nights curled up together in the old couch and watching the same movie again because Kokichi had insisted, he quoted, “To struggle against great odds.”

The words, clearly familiar to him, brought a smile so warm to Kokichi’s face that it made all rewatches worth it.

“To meet enemies undaunted,” Kokichi completed. “We should watch that again after you’re done with your stupid test.”

“Really, again?”

“Yup, again!”

Kaito wanted to refuse, he really did, but he got one look at Kokichi’s face – with the bright make up, sleepy eyes and happy smile, and at that moment he swore he’d name a constellation after him –, and all of it flew out of the window.

“Yeah, sure.”

God, he was so stupidly lovesick.

**Author's Note:**

> Note 1: My knowledge of concerts are solely about ballet, so I just mixed that with the little I know about theater, so if any of it sounds accurate, that's why  
> Note 2: The movie they're referring to at the end is Dead Poets Society, my favorite movie. The title also comes from it.
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr post](https://mamichigo.tumblr.com/post/175874010060/mamimigo-the-powerful-play-goes-on-pairing)


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